Re: Long Island City...

The problem is that the unless you build the additional tunnels,the line just simply ends up being an orphan that leads to a ferry dock,or you end up wasting time with backtracking over existing ROW (and wasting time) to get to 63rd Street. Unless you're willing to build a tunnel to maximize connections and usability,then I'd argue that the money should just go elsewhere.

There are other options. You could connect it to 53rd east of 23rd st, which would be expensive and also result in some backtracking, but not as much, you could build a new el through Long Island City to connect to 63rd street, which would make a shorter path and thereby save time, or you could connect it to the Myrtle El, since west of Metro Mall the line runs through some industrial areas anyway, but that would probably take the longest of all options. As a last option, you could keep the line purely a LIRR operation and connect the cutoff to the existing tunnels to NYP.